flower power

Polly Apfelbaum produces many paintings and installations that incorporate flowers into their composition. Apfelbaum successfully displays how her flower iconography and repetitive nature embody how femininity can be both beautiful and complex. Furthermore, the association and importance of repetition and iconography is challenged as Apfelbaum questions if love and madness associated with love are all exclusively “feminine” or is it just an association that society has made. 

Petah Coyne creates beautiful, complex sculptures, which she refers to as her “Girls”. Coyne uses silk flowers as well as an assortment of items such as wire, fabric, paint and other materials, to create these “girls”. These mixed media sculptures are meant to be both an embodiment of herself and her femininity. The use of flowers in almost all of her work is present and helps the viewer identify the femininity present within these sculptures.